Phobos Down is ready
The game has been in slow development for four years since the first prototype. Most of that time, there has a been playable alpha or beta version available, first on Itch.io only, later on Steam Early Access as well. I did not get as much feedback as I had hoped but the feedback I got was constructive and helped shape the game into what it is today.
The original idea was to take all the features I liked in existing twin stick shooter games and leave out everything that I felt was unnecessary interruptions to the action. I tried to make an ideal twin stick shooter for myself, a middle-aged gamer with limited time, who enjoys twin stick shooters but can't keep up with the most hectic bullet hell games, and wants to enjoy more strategic shooting action without constant panic and struggle to survive.
The arcade
During these four years I also upgraded my old DIY arcade cabinet to run Phobos Down. I'm hoping to get this arcade cabinet publicly playable again somewhere in Tampere during December.
What's new?
This update does more than just bumps the version number. Settings menu has been overhauled and some requested settings, like master volume control, has been added there. Some new enemy variants have been also added, including a new boss enemy that launches bombs in patterns around the player.
Here are all the changes since the last beta version:
Fixed a bug in enemy obstacle avoidance that made them push too hard against obstacles.
Added evasive movement on hit to most smaller enemies.
Added medium sized crawler enemy variant.
Added smaller and larger variants of bomb launching crawler enemies.
Fixed logged errors on attempting to set achievements in non-Steam game version.
Split settings menu into gameplay and video+audio settings.
Added audio master volume control in settings.
Hide controller guides while mission info is shown.
Fixed crawler enemy walk animation speed not scaling with body size.
Added new bomb pattern launching boss enemy.
Adjusted boss enemy appearing probabilities.
Fixed duplicate vertices in some enemy models.
Added option to disable termination streak counter labels.
What about the future?
I will continue to fix bugs and possibly even add some more content. After all, I still have quite a few ideas for new enemies and gear. I have done some testing with a mobile version for Android and it is technically feasible but I'm not sure if it would be worth the trouble.